Alliance Defense Force
Alliance Defense Force The militant arm of the Galactic Alliance, the Alliance Defense Force exists to support and enforce the Alliance Charter under the strict limits of the laws of the Alliance. The dispersement of military forces back to their home planet was one of the primary goals of the new Alliance charter. Once formed by mandate of the New Republic's Army, the forming of the new Alliance Defense Force instead draws upon the legal strength of the new charter of the Galactic Alliance. Recruiting stations for the ADF are mandated on every Alliance charter world, and planets are required to provide contributing forces to the ADF as part of the mutual defense pact. The Alliance Defense Force is an independent military force that provides presence stability, disaster relief, and military support to any requesting charter world member and some limited support to partner confederations of the Alliance. By special mandate of the Alliance military charter, ADF rank structures allow their military forces to insert themselves into the command chain of any charter world they are mobilized to, and ADF forces may request the assignment of additional system military personnel to the operational task force if required. Under specific Senate directives, an ADF commander may, by special mandate, conscript available military support to assist with the Senate operations. The Galactic Alliance Defense Force (GADF) is organized as a peace-keeping and cadre force. While its stated mission is to protect the galaxy from internal and external threats, in reality a large portion of the GADF is stationed along the border worlds of the Imperial Remnant to watch for aggression from the IR. The GADF is woefully undermanned for its stated goal. A large standing military is extremely expensive and the question of who pays for it is a contentious one. In addition, after the Empire era and the Galactic Civil War that followed, most GA members are understandably leery of an enormous, powerful military. The GADF can barely fulfill its requirements to be stationed as a bulwark against possible Imperial Remnant aggression - as a result, its other missions, such as peacekeeping, anti-piracy patrols, and so on suffer. Even the border force of the GADF is a cadre - it is not meant to stop a full-scale invasion of the GA by the Imperial Remnant. Instead, it is designed to delay and contain the IR long enough for a general call-up of GA member militaries to deal with the threat. In addition, the GADF is tasked with training individual GA member militaries, especially for worlds that have only recently gained independence. The ADF falls back on the old traditions of the Republic- expertise and innovation over drills and cannon fodder. Though her standing military is smaller than under the Republic and barely a fraction of the former might of the Empire at her peak, it is staffed by highly expert and dedicated personnel, many of them holdovers from the New Republic Military who see the ADF as the best way to safeguard the galaxy. As bulk contingents were withdrawn and others, dismissed, power vacuums occured. Tightly knit groups like Alliance Marine Corps stayed relatively cohesive, but on large scales support elements like the New Republic Ground Ops and the New Republic Fleet fairly evaporated. Unfortunately, there were opportunities for individuals with more ambition than experience to stab their way to the top, and in places the new ADF was weakened by ineffective leaders with more eye towards political influence than tactical competence. Structure Navy The ADF supports four active fleets. First Fleet is stationed on the edge of Imperial-Alliance space as a patrol and delaying force. Consisting of a handful of battle groups, it is not independently strong enough to defeat a sustained Fleet attack. It is designed to provide a first line of defense and early warning system for Alliance forces so various support units can be formed. Second Fleet and Third Fleet are both the command taskings which protect the Core Constituents and patrol the major hyperspace lanes. Rarely will more than two battle groups occupy the same location or system. Fourth Fleet is the ADF's patrol fleet, and patrols near hot zones that may erupt into flash points. Starfighters Though greatly reduced in scale, the Navy retained a small but expert cadre of starfighter pilots and personnel that matched the drawn-down fleet sizes. Forward-thinking leaders in the Starfighter corps ensured that the first thing to be sent back to the planets were older, more outmoded ships, which kept many of the more cutting-edge models of starfighters docked in ADF hangars. Army The Army under the ADF is mostly a command and training cadre with a limited amount of troops. Most ADF Army troops act as training cadre and exchange personnel, working to bring planetary militaries up to suitable level of training and keep techniques and tactics consistent across the Alliance. The ADF has support elements across the Alliance, but the high cost of maintaining a large Army presence has put the onus of large-scale troop logistics on planetary systems. Marine Corps The Galactic Alliance Marine Corps is one of the only branches that survived the budget cuts with minimal injury. Though much of the support network was reduced, the Marines remained sized in five distinct Corps that were divided between the four major Navy fleets and their support stations planetside, and a fifth in a training/recovery status, stationed at the Marine Corps Headquarters and Training Facilities on Ord Mantell and other locations. Marines were deployed in teams as small as squad-level to support a single Corvette, or as large as an entire battalion as the assault element for a full-scale attack force, as the fleet ordered. More and more often, Marines were expected to act as nearly independent agents, supporting operations with little to no formal guidance from higher command echelons.